Griffiths: Peter Griffiths

Peter Griffiths

Peter D. Griffiths, the Associate Chief Justice of Ontario, was a Crown Ontario when the Cornwall sex abuse scandal and cover-up broke out.

According to the Attorney General’s website Justice Peter D. Griffiths received his degree in law from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1974 and was called to the Bar in 1976. After three years in private practice he joined the Crown Attorney’s Office in Toronto in 1979, was appointed Crown Attorney in 1989 and was appointed Regional Director of Crown Operations for the East Region of Ontario in 1993. In 1998 he was appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice, and presided primarily in Brockville and Ottawa.

In 2005, Peter Griffiths was appointed Regional Senior Justice of the East Region, and in 2007 he was appointed Associate Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Justice. Justice Griffiths chairs the Education Secretariat overseeing all judicial education for the Ontario Court of Justice.

Justice Peter Griffiths testified at the Cornwall Public Inquiry 12 January 2009

Transcript

The Saga

(re questions of obstruction of justice and Crowns attorney Peter Griffiths, Robert Pelletier and Murray MacDonald)

BLOGS

02 April 1997: The Griffith-Pelletier Memo

MEDIA Coverage

Prosecutor remained on case despite conflict

CORNWALL PUBLIC INQUIRY

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

13 January 2009

Posted By TREVOR PRITCHARD, STANDARD-FREEHOLDER

Time constraints kept a former senior Crown attorney from asking the lawyer prosecuting sex abuse allegations against a local priest to immediately step down over a conflict of interest, the Cornwall Public Inquiry heard yesterday.

Peter Griffiths testified that “time was ticking” during the 1997 preliminary hearing into charges that Rev. Charles MacDonald had assaulted three men decades earlier — and that was why he kept Robert Pelletier in charge of the retired priest’s prosecution.

“When that was completed, he would no longer be involved,” Griffiths said.

“That was my recollection.”

From 1993 until 1998, Griffiths — now the associate chief justice for the Ontario Court of Justice — was the regional director of Crown attorneys in eastern Ontario.

Allegations involving MacDonald, a former priest at St. Columban’s Church in Cornwall, had first come to the attention of city police in 1992.

Four years later, MacDonald was charged by the Ontario Provincial Police with seven counts of indecent assault.

In April 1997, Pelletier wrote a letter to Griffiths that outlined some of his concerns with remaining in charge of the case.

The Ontario Provincial Police had, by that time, received a collection of documents from former Cornwall cop Perry Dunlop which alleged there had been a wide-ranging conspiracy to cover up historical sexual abuse allegations. Among those named in the documents was Murray MacDonald, the city’s Crown attorney and a friend of Pelletier’s.

Still, there was no discussion in April 1997 about transferring the case to another prosecutor, Griffiths added.

It would be more than two years until Pelletier — who is scheduled to testify at the inquiry later this month — stepped aside. He was replaced by Shelley Hallett, a Toronto area prosecutor.

Charles MacDonald was never convicted of sexually abusing children. In 2002, a judge stayed all the charges against him after ruling it had taken too long for the case to come to trial.

One of Charles MacDonald’s alleged victims, John MacDonald, told the inquiry in 2007 he felt many of the issues around the priest’s voyage through the justice system — including the failure to remove Pelletier in 1997 — were “borderline criminal.”

The lawyer, Malcolm MacDonald, had drawn up a settlement that paid $32,000 to one of Charles MacDonald’s alleged victims. The deal included an illegal clause preventing the former altar boy from pursuing criminal charges against the priest.

In his first letter to John MacDonald, Griffiths wrote that the discharge was “commensurate with other similar cases that have been decided in courts in other provinces.”

When John MacDonald wrote back, asking for the specific cases, Griffiths ignored him.

He took responsibility for that oversight yesterday.

“If I had it to do again, I would have answered him — if only to say ‘I’m sorry, I can’t help you any further,'” said Griffiths. “It was not appropriate not to answer the second letter.”

At the end of his testimony, Griffiths praised the victims who’d testified at the long-running inquiry, and offered a blanket apology for the pain they’d suffered.

“What many of these people have been through — not only at the initial stages of abuse when they were children and young adults, but through the last 10 years of living this over and over again in the press — must be extraordinarily difficult,” said Griffiths. “And I deeply regret that.”

The inquiry is exploring how a variety of institutions, including the province’s criminal justice system, handled allegations of historical sexual abuse.

Conspiracy Allegations Around Child Sex Abuse “Outrageous”: Griffiths

AM 1220

January 13, 2009 — Conspiracy allegations surrounding child sex abuse cases in Cornwall are being described as “outrageous” by one of Ontario’s top judges. Associate Chief Justice Peter Griffiths says there was no ring of truth to the suggestion that city police, the local diocese and area crown’s office agreed to cover-up child sex abuse. Griffiths was the regional senior crown at time who asked for an investigation. Griffiths ended his testimony by apologizing to the victims. (Hear audio clip below) Hearings continue at 9:30 this morning.

[ Transcript of audio clip: “First of all, I’m sorry for their pain. I appreciate I’m talking to an empty room here, but I’m hoping that there are people out there who would hear this, I’m sorry for their pain…… I deeply regret the pain that the victims have suffered through this.”]

Local judge elevated

Ottawa Sun

27 July 2007

By SEAN MCKIBBBON, COURTS BUREAU

An Ottawa judge has been appointed associate chief justice of the Ontario Court of Justice.

Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant announced yesterday that Peter Griffiths, regional senior judge of the East Region, has been appointed to fill the opening left when Justice Annemarie Bonkalo was named to the position of chief justice of Ontario.

Bryant also announced Regional Senior Judge John Andrew Payne of the Central East Region will become the associate chief justice and coordinator of justices of the peace, effective Sept. 2.

“Both Associate Chief Justice Griffiths and Associate Chief Justice Payne have demonstrated through their extensive judicial experience that they have the skills, dedication and integrity to lead the Ontario Court in their new roles,” said Bryant.

SPEARHEADED MENTAL HEALTH COURT

Griffiths was appointed to the bench in 1998, sitting primarily in Brockville and Ottawa.

He most recently spearheaded the establishment of a mental health court in Ottawa to help people with mental illness navigate their way through the criminal justice system.

“The appointment of these two extremely capable judges will be a great asset to the Ontario Court of Justice and the public it serves,” said Bonkalo.

Griffiths was called to the bar in 1976 and held numerous senior positions in the criminal justice system.

From 1979-1989, he served as an assistant Crown attorney. He managed the Etobicoke Crown attorney’s office for four years and in 1993 was appointed regional senior Crown attorney for the East Region.

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